MacMost: Archives

MacMost Now 139: Converting Video to MP3 Audio
9/29/08

Gary Rosenzweig looks at two ways to convert video files to mp3 audio files so you can listen to them on audio-only devices. The first method uses QuickTime Pro and iTunes. The second method uses FFMpegX.

MacMost Now 138: Managing Podcasts in iTunes 8
9/26/08
Gary Rosenzweig looks at how to manage podcast subscriptions in iTunes 8. You can now manage your subscriptions on a per-podcast basis in iTunes 8.
MacMost Now 137: The Otterbox Defender for iPhone 3G
9/24/08
Gary Rosenzweig takes a look at the Otterbox Defender for iPhone 3G. This rugged case protects from drops and scratches. It is probably the ultimate protection from an iPhone.
9/23/08

Since the launch of the iTunes App store for iPhone and iPod Touch apps, there has been a ton of attention given to iPhone Apps. Having so many third-party developers pour their creativity into applications that run on the little iPhone is creating a renaissance in the world of software development.
As a user, it is also a great thing. Every day new and interesting apps appear in the iTunes store that could be useful. The iPhone gets more and more powerful with every app release.
But I’ve been disappointed in the experience of finding iPhone apps. The iTunes store is not a great way to find things — whether it is apps or music.
I dreamed of an iPhone app directory that would show me what’s new and allow me to sort and filter.
So I built one. Announcing the MacMost iPhone Apps Directory. I’d consider it to be in beta stage now, but it is still pretty powerful. For once thing, it makes it a lot faster and easier to check to see what’s new, or to just see what apps have just been updated.
Anyway, check it out and send some feedback. I’ll be adding some more features soon.
Go to the iPhone Apps Directory.

MacMost Now 136: Free Screen Capture Software
9/22/08
Gary Rosenzweig looks at Jing from TechSmith. This free screen capture software for Mac and Windows allows you to quickly capture and share images and video from your computer.
MacMost Now 135: Watching DVDs On Your Mac Without the DVD
9/19/08
Gary Rosenzweig looks at the software DVD Drive-In for Mac. This makes an image of a DVD on your MacBook's hard drive so you can watch the DVD while traveling without having to bring the DVD with you.
MacMost Now 134: Creating iMovie Titles With Keynote
9/17/08
Gary Rosenzweig looks at how to use iWork's Keynote program to make animated titles for use in iMovie. You can use the transitions and special effects in Keynote to build an opening sequence, and then export it as a video to import into iMovie.
MacMost Now 133: Mobile Broadband
9/15/08
Gary Rosenzweig talks about the mobile broadband service from Sprint that he has been using. With a wireless USB modem, he is able to get broadband speeds just about anywhere. Good as a travel solution, or as a backup to a connection at home or at work.
9/12/08

When Steve Jobs announced that the big new feature in iTunes 08 was Genius, a music recommendation service, I, and many others, said: “Huh.”
First of all, this sort of technology has been around for a long long time. It was years (6, 8?) ago that I first used Amazon’s feature to find similar artists based on what people bought. I used that to discover new artists, in fact. More recently, Pandora has introduced some very sophisticated music matching techniques that suggest new music based on the music itself. I’ve also used sites like AllMusic.com to find out which artists I may like.
But Genius fails in a way that Apple is usually very good at — it really feels like it is selling you something. I feel that it is pushing me to buy music, not suggesting music I may like.
It reminds me of my high school job, which was working at a record store. Now I worked at a cool record store. We didn’t go out onto the floor and bother people by trying to sell them more records. (By the way, by “records” I do mean vinyl). But at other stores you’d get some kid trying to suggest something: “Have you heard the latest Smithereens album?”
Genius feels like that. I feel like telling it: “Don’t bother me, kid, I know what I want.”
And what is with the name? A “genius” is how you would describe someone who takes one song and then suggests others? That’s not a “genius” — that’s just Jack Black in High Fidelity.
I’d at least expect it to be smarter than Amazon or Pandora, but most of the suggestions I got were just for other songs by the same artist. And it doesn’t even seem to know that Anna Waronker was in That Dog — there are no suggestions between them.
And what happens if I select a Beatles song? I can’t find anything! That’s weird on so many levels.
And it has nothing to do with my Beatles songs coming from CD instead of the iTunes store — most of my music is that way. It may have to do with The Beatles not being sold on iTunes, but as a music lover I don’t really care about Apple’s legal issues.
Anyway, I’m sure that Genius will help Apple sell more music. It can’t hurt, right? I’m sure that was part of their reasoning.
But now that I’m not reviewing it, I’m turning it off.

MacMost Now 132: Spore For Mac
9/11/08
Gary Rosenzweig takes a look at Spore, the new game from Will Wright and Electronic Arts. Spore is a game that takes you from a single-celled organism to galactic domination.
MacMost Now 131: New iPod Nano, Touch, Classic and iTunes 8
9/9/08
Gary Rosenzweig takes a look at today's announcements by Steve Jobs of a new iPod Nano, iPod Touch and iPod Classic. Also, new iTunes 8 and iPhone software update 2.1.
MacMost Now 130: Blurring An Area In iMovie 08
9/8/08
Gary Rosenzweig attempts to using iMovie 08 to blur out an area in a video. You can use this to blur a license plate, face or something else you want to remove.
9/8/08

So two bits of Spore news. The first is that the iPhone version will not be released until later this month. All reports previously had mentioned that it would be out the same day as the full PC/Mac game.
The second is that the game isn’t “Spore” but “Spore Origins.” It appears to be similar to the first part of the full PC/Mac game where you evolve a single organism floating around in a primordial ooze.
We’ve got to point out how we predicted this back in March in the post Why We Won’t Really See Spore on the iPhone. The second bit of news, in the same press release by EA, is that the game will use the iPhone-specific controls: the motion sensor, and pinching and pulling on the multi-touch screen. This should make for a unique experience on the iPhone and iPod Touch. There are supposed to be 2 modes and 35 levels — we’ll see what that means when the game comes out.
Meanwhile, Spore Origins has been released for the iPod Video, Classic and iPod Nano third-generation.
Electronic Arts also announced several other titles for the iPhone in the same press release, but no specific release dates: Yahtzee Adventures, EA Mini Golf, Lemonade Tycoon, Mahjong, Monopoly: Here & Now The World Edition, SimCity, Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 09, Need for Speed Undercover, and The Sims 3. SimCity, in particular could be a powerful game on the iPhone.
Update: Spore Origins is out and costs $9.99 at the iTunes App Store. It is basically just the first part of Spore, where you float around in the primordial ooze.

9/5/08

Next month Comcast cable modem customers will have to start watching their bandwidth. The large Internet provider has announced that they will limit users to 250GB per month of data transfer. Previously, users have had unlimited data transfer, although there are many reports of heavy users being kicked off the service when they hit an invisible limit.
Now 250GB is a lot of data. If you downloaded one HD movie per day, at 5GB per movie, it would add up to 150GB. If you streamed live video at .5MB per second for two hours each day, it would be about 216GB. If you downloaded a new version of your entire operating system every day, it would be about 180GB.
So 250GB is hard to hit. Now. For most people. But soon it will be easier. And we want it to be easier. People are creating more and more content — video content — for online distribution. It is not hard to subscribe to 10, 20 or even 50 video podcasts, updating each day or week, all with hundreds of MB or even GB in file size.
And the idea from the creator’s side is to get viewers. People are trying all sorts of different shows: news programs, comedy, vlogs, commentary, artistic, etc. This is a renaissance period for video, where all it takes is an idea, talent and hard work to make something, not a million dollar budget.
But if a large portion of the Internet audience suddenly starts watching their bandwidth, counting each byte for fear of losing their Internet connection, then they will stop download video because it looks interesting. They will get more picky, sticking with what they know and avoiding new things.
And this won’t just stay with Comcast. Since they took the first step, expect others to follow. Other cable providers will look at this as a way to set bandwidth limits without causing a fuss, because Comcast did it first. And competing services like DSL will do the same, claiming that they need to match Comcast’s service terms to remain competitive.
And don’t forget that Internet video is the primary reason, I’m sure, for this bandwidth cap. Or at least it will be the primary victim. And what is Comcast’s primary business? Video. So this is an anti-competitive move. There is no bandwidth limit on Comcast’s video services, only on the Internet, which competes with Comcast’s cable channels.
So we might be seeing the beginning of the end here. The end to innovation and creativity in Internet video. Soon it may require big budgets again, at least in marketing, to get your video noticed by the bandwidth-strangled public. Noticed enough that they are willing to spend some of their precious byte allotment to risk seeing if your show is worthwhile.

MacMost Now 129: Shorter URLs and Hiding Your Email Address
9/4/08
Gary Rosenzweig takes a look at two Web services. The first, http://tinyurl.com, will take a long Web address and shorten it to make it easier to send in email. The second, http://tinymail.me, will hide your email address.
9/3/08

A lot of tech journalists this week are talking about computer maker Psystar’s counter lawsuit against Apple. Psystar has been making and selling Mac clones for a few months now. They put together standard PC parts and install Mac OS X on it. The only problem being that Apple doesn’t allow Mac OS X to be installed on non-Mac computers, according to the license.
So it was only a matter of time before Apple sued to stop Psystar. What’s interesting is that Psystar is fighting back by claiming that Apple has created an illegal monopoly by insisting that Mac OS X only gets to run on Apple-made hardware.
So this brings up the question: Why doesn’t Apple like Psystar and other manufacturers install OS X on their machines? After all, it is a sale for Apple.
Apple did do this for a while in the 90s. And it didn’t help Apple much at all. Those clones were a little cheaper, but quality was an issue. Steve Jobs put a stop to it as soon as he returned to Apple.
I think quality is again the issue. OS X has an advantage over Windows. Windows needs to know how to run on a lot of different hardware configurations: processors, video cards, sound cards, motherboards, buses, etc. But OS X only needs to run using a very finite set of these things. This allows Apple to spend less time getting OS X to work on every possible configuration, and more time getting it to work well on the configurations that they know and control.
I think the plan is to make sure that OS X is a good experience for users, wherever OS X runs. ANd if it is allowed to run on non-Apple hardware, then Apple looses control over that experience.
I think the guys at Apple are smart and have run the numbers. They see they can make a little more by selling OS X to other manufacturers, but that they will loose customer satisfaction in the long run.
I don’t see a monopoly here, I see the opposite. You can choose between Windows, OS X and Linux. The first is a general operating system not tied to hardware. The second is an OS that is built for specific hardware. The third is an open source solution that can be adapted to fit a need. The market has produced three different operating systems that are distinctly different, and yet all allow you to person the same basic tasks on a personal computer.

MacMost Now 128: iPhone Games-Scrabble, Galcon, Aurora Feint
9/2/08
Gary Rosenzweig looks at three iPhone Game Apps available at the iTunes App Store. Scrabble is the official version of the classic board game. Galcon is a strategy game played like an arcade game. Aurora Feint is an interesting adventure and puzzle game. You can also play free iPhone games at MacMost.com.
MacMost Now 127: Upload From iPhoto to Flickr and FaceBook
8/29/08
Gary Rosenzweig looks at two extensions for iPhoto that will allow you to upload your photos directly from iPhoto to Flickr and FaceBook.
8/28/08

I just got back from the Digg Townhall event at the Big Tent set up for the DNC here in Denver. Jay Adelson and Kevin Rose updated the community live via a video feed about upcoming changes to Digg.com and also fielded many questions submitted by the community.

This isn’t too exciting. There’s none of the humor of Diggnation nor the coolness of Digg itself. But it is interesting to see what they have in store.
But what is interesting is the whole idea of reaching out to the community to steer the future of Digg. What other Web 2.0 company does that? Some, I’m sure, but I can’t think of any right now. Twitter seems to like to keep its users in the dark. FaceBook doesn’t make this kind of effort.
And this isn’t a halfhearted attempt at communication, either. They could have made someone the “head of community interaction” and sent them around to do townhall meetings. But instead the CEO and the founder do it. This lends credibility behind statements like “we’re working on that.”
I’d like to see other Web companies try townhall events. They probably don’t because they are afraid people will use it as a way to bitch about bugs and missing features. They will. That’s the point. And you can use that sort of feedback to make yourself better.

MacMost Now 126: Using Your Mac and Wii Together
8/27/08
Gary Rosenzweig looks at how to view music, photos and video from your Mac on your Wii using Wii Transfer. You can also use your Wii Remote with your Mac as a wireless mouse.